Physicochemical characterisation of a new Myrtaceae fruit native to Brazilian Cerrado

ABSTRACT

A new fruit of the Myrtaceae, Eugenia bonita, was recently discovered. Its composition is unknown, which makes its physicochemical characterisation and its development profile during maturation necessary. Therefore, this work constitutes the first study aimed at determining the quality parameters and bioactive compounds of new fruit of E. bonita, at different stages of maturation. The fruits were collected in the city of Bonito de Minas, Minas Gerais in five stages of maturation and submitted for analysis of the physicochemical characteristics. The advance of maturation caused increase in all biometric characteristics of E. bonita fruits and reduction in all constituents of the proximate composition, except moisture. In addition, the ripe fruit was characterised by high water content, high acidity, and good sweetness. Moreover, there was change in the fruit color from green to yellow-orange, after maturity. In turn, although some phytochemicals have degraded during maturation, the high levels of vitamin C (61.17 mg/100 g) and total phenolics (587.92 mg GAE/100 g) in the ripe fruits characterise E. bonita as an important source of bioactive compounds. These data are of great importance to the scientific community, food industry, and popular culture since this fruit has interesting functional properties and great nutritional value.

KEYWORDS:

• Antioxidant activity
• Brazilian Savanna
• native fruit
• nutritional value
• quality parameters

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the following Brazilian agencies Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico of Brasil (CNPq), Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG), and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

T. C. S.: Data Curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, and Writing – Original draft preparation; H. C. F.: Methodology, Investigation, and Writing – Reviewing and Editing; C. A. F. D.: Formal analysis, Investigation; R. S. F.: Supervision, Writing – Reviewing and Editing; J. P. L.: Visualisation, Supervision, Project administration, and Writing – Reviewing and Editing.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, H. C. F., upon reasonable request.